Married Women’s Negotiations about their Reproductive Rights with Patriarchy
Abstract
The present study was carried out to explore how married women discuss their reproductive health issues with their spouses. Gender and power theory was used to describe the effect of sociocultural and economic factors on women’s decision making about the size of the family and sex. Women’s negotiating power about the use of contraceptives was studied by taking respondents of the urban city of Lahore and rural areas of Rasol Nagar and Ali Pur Chatta. Data was collected from 20 married women by using semi structured interviews and thematic analysis was later employed. The findings discovered the variability in the women's autonomy on the bases of their background and also revealed the ignorance of women about the religious teaching regarding sexual and reproductive life and majority of them were relying on the interpretation led by religious clergies. Furthermore, cliché attached to reproductive and sexual life facilitated the hesitation in women to remain ignored and consequently nurtured the existing patriarchal domination in private life too. The results of this study might have policy implication for gender specialists, government and civil society working for women empowerment to understand the sensitivity of this issue and take necessary measure towards sensitization of women’ needs.
Authors
Zain Khadija
Lecturer, Lahore College for Women University, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
Dr. Subha Malik
Assistant Professor, Lahore College for Women University, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
Madiha Nadeem
Lecturer, Lahore College for Women University, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan